Among the topics discussed at last week's National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) meeting, NCI's plan for standardizing the collection and analysis of biological samples was at the top of the list. "When we started this project 3 years ago, none of us recognized the complexities surrounding the policy and technical issues," said Dr. Anna Barker, NCI deputy directory for Strategic Scientific Initiatives. She explained that biorepositories are crucial to cancer research because, "More data is encoded in a person's biological samples than in the rest of their medical record combined." Along with the U.S. Department of Defense, NCI houses one of the largest collections of biological samples in the world, Dr. Barker said. "We have learned that it is time to begin harmonizing our approaches and technologies for all phases of biospecimen collection and management."

Dr. John Niederhuber announced his formal resignation as NCAB chair; Dr. Paul Van Hoff will serve as interim chair. Dr. Niederhuber has been named NCI deputy director for Translational and Clinical Sciences (see Notes ¹). Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach presented Dr. Niederhuber with the NCI Director's Award for his contributions during his tenure as NCAB chair. "John was committed and effective in integrating the NCAB into the leadership of NCI," said Dr. von Eschenbach.

To view an archived webcast of the September 20-21 meeting, go to http://videocast.nih.gov/
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